How Family-Friendly Is German Academia?
The ideal academic worker is independent of care duties and lives a flexible, mobile way of life, which is only dedicated to research and scholarship. In the German context, the Humboldtian ideal is essential to understand. It says the best way to work in academia is solitude and freedom. This understanding of academic work contributed to the exclusion of women in academia for a long time. Due to changes in the engagement for gender equality in the last decades and a slow opening of the academic system in Germany, those normative concepts started to be challenged from different angles. Scholars and researchers of every gender and social background do not want to sacrifice their lives only for academia. Instead, they also want a family life. Against this backdrop, higher education institutions and research organizations are asking how they can improve to be more family-friendly and to become attractive study and work organizations.
What measures help to reconcile studying or research with care work? Here, you will find a structured range of information on family-friendliness in academia.
These webpages have been established due to funded projects by the German Federal Ministry for Science and Education: Effektiv!, Connect and BAWIE.
Research Overview
Academia and family-friendliness - a contradiction in terms? Get an informative overview of the key questions on this topic here.
Tools And Resources
German networks, equality policy measures, certificates - here is a well-founded overview.
Survey Studies
Links to survey studies that address the topic of reconciliation of academic work and private life.
Legal Situation in Germany
What is the legal basis for family-friendliness in higher education and equality law? Answers can be found in our German equality law database.
